THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Press release…
Dried fruit sector doubled its exports to the USA, China and Japan in 10 years…
Dried fruit sector aims to exceed 2 billion dollars of exports in 3 years with TURQUALITY, URGE projects and fairs…
In the dried fruit sector dominated by seedless raisins, dried figs and dried apricots, in which Türkiye is the world leader in production and exports, Türkiye has ramped up its exports to China, Japan and the United States of America by 101 per cent in the last 10 years with TURQUALITY projects, from 93 million dollars to 187 million dollars. The dried fruit sector aims to surge its annual exports of 1.6 billion dollars to over 2 billion dollars at the end of 3 years through TURQUALITY, URGE (Product Development) projects and effective marketing at fairs.
Speaking at the “Dried Fruit Sector Evaluation Meeting” of the Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters’ Association, Mehmet Ali Işık, Chair of the Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters’ Association, said that they have come to a position to reap the fruits of TURQUALITY projects and URGE projects implemented by the Aegean Exporters’ Associations (EIB) with the support of the Ministry of Trade and that they have achieved a 101 percent spike in exports to the USA, China and Japan during the process in which dried fruit exports from the country in the last 10 years soared by 9 percent in quantity and 12 percent in value.
Explaining that success in exports comes thanks to the coordinated work of ministries, producers, traders, universities, research institutes and exporters, Işık said, “After the change in dried fruit exports in the last 10 years, the share of the European Union has become 50 percent, while we have reached 50 percent in other markets. The driving markets here were the USA, China and Japan. While our exports to the USA were 71 million dollars in 2012, we reached 126 million dollars in 2022. Our exports to China were 10.9 million dollars in 2012 and today we export 32.7 million dollars. In 2012, our dried fruit exports to Japan were 10.8 million dollars, while today we have exceeded 28 million dollars. While 3 countries have a share of 9.5 percent of our dried fruit exports on quantity basis, it has reached 11.7 percent on value basis.”
The second Development of International Competitiveness Project to reach 2 billion dollars of exports…
Underlining that Türkiye exports 500 thousand tonnes of dried fruits annually, Işık noted, “We do marketing with government support. TURQUALITY and URGE Projects give us strength in our marketing activities. In the previous period, we had carried out an URGE Project with the participation of 18 companies. We get consultancy and services that we cannot get as a single company. As Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters’ Association, we have started a new URGE Project. We have also entered the second period of the TURQUALITY Project, in which the Aegean Exporters’ Associations promote Turkish food products in the US market. Exhibitions are very effective in increasing our exports. We invite our exporters to take part in these projects. Türkiye has set an export target of 302.2 billion dollars for 2026 in the Medium Term Programme. As the dried fruit sector, we want to contribute 2 billion dollars to this target.”
New TURQUALITY Project is coming…
Mehmet Ali Işık, Chair of Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters’ Association, added that they will apply to the Ministry of Trade for a new TURQUALITY Project with the dried fruit exporters’ associations in Istanbul and Gaziantep in addition to the new URGE Project in order to increase their exports in target markets, that they will increase their participation in fairs that prepare the ground for importers and exporters to meet and that they are taking action to organise Türkiye’s National Participation in the Natural Products Expo West Fair in the United States…
